Wednesday night as bombs were falling on Ukraine, Sen. Cruz was partying hard with Trump at Mar-a-Lago along with other GOP senators, having already sabotaged Biden's efforts against Putin
How about a simple current history of Russia to remind Americans what it's like to live under Putin. How would a truck convoy blocking the Kremlin go over do you think? They'd all be hung in Red Square. Most people in this country don't know what ordinary life is like in Russia today. And that is what the Trump Republicans want to turn this country into.
The agreement made with the Soviet Union was that if they allowed the reunification of German, a country that had incited two wars and invasions of the Soviet Union, then the United States would not expand the NATO military organization to the east and threaten the Soviets. The United States has repeatedly violated that agreement once it got the reunification, it sought to sell new military weapons to the new NATO members who are forced to convert to new ones made by American, British, and French firms.
A Lend Lease by FDR was a way to get the Soviets to do all the fighting while Americans stayed at home, much as with the firsth World War. The end result was 20 million people dead in the Soviet Union as compared to less than half a million Americans. The Soviet armies fought against 80 German divisions as compared to fewer than 20 divisions with the allies armies. The Soviets crushed the Japanese armies in Manchuria and Korea and accomlished more in the first 3 weeks with their invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 (requested by FDR) than the U.S. military accomplished in 4 years of fighting for its former colonies in the Pacific.
Imagine the response if Putin established military bases in Mexico and Cuba and Venezuela and supplied them with missles systems as the U.S. has done across Europe and the Middle East. The U.S. launched illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and devasted the countries and caused the deaths of millions of civilians but that is different?
FDR was presiding over about the same percentage of fascist sympathizers as Biden is today. This schism seems to be in American DNA. Surely the Soviets had their own motives. Patton thought so. I think a quibble may be made with invasion of Afghanistan. As for Iraq, I think an argument can be made that "the U.S.", in terms of the citizenry, aren't guilty of that. Remember the truly mass mass marches, in despite of grossly bogus propaganda that caused hysteria among the (go back to) same percentage of innate fascist sympathizers, and the pandering media. (Hans Blix U.N. arms inspection report was "buried" low on far inside page of San Francisco Chronicle, with front page filled with LeBron James, then just a teenager from Ohio.) This is a "response" I can't resist, but when shall we take pity on Ukraine, now; today? None of the past gives Putin the right, no matter who didn't have the right to whatever back into the mists of time!
That's correct. After the Soviet Union collapsed, its former satellites legitimately became sovereign nations free to choose their own alliances and destinies without paying homage to the biggest bully on the block. Accept the reality of the present rather than the fantasies of the past. Sadly for poor Mr. Putin, most of them chose NATO over his tin-pot dictatorship. Go figure.
Read Cinfessions of An Economic Hitman for an accurate understanding of how the U.S. empire works. Without a Union the Soviet republics ( as well as Russia itself which in desperation under Yeltzin took Goldman Sachs top managers literally into the Kremlin to oversee neoliberal privatization schemes) were weak and susceptible to grifter mobs that cut deals with the US for NATO incursion. They were bought while Russia was on its knees. Putin had to rebuild Russia after its plunder by capitalists under alcoholic Yeltzin. Yet all we hear in our Wall St. owned media is that NATO saved the 15 republics from the threat of Russia. BTW Crimea voted to join Russia as soon as the U.S. backed fascist coup in Ukraine occurred. Not one shot was fired. Crimea just chose to leave Ukraine and it’s ties to the US.
I read that, and also Perkin's sequel, "The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman." These are both must-reads for people to understand the truly evil nature of America's earlier tactics of underhanded empire-building using economic weapons, via the NSA. Those spooks along with the cooperation of the CIA were tasked to rape third-world countries for their raw resources as payment on hopeless sovereign debt, which operatives like John Perkins enticed them into. Their already impoverished taxpayers had to pay back the loans until they no longer could, which resulted in the forfeiture of their resources as payment, which served to enrich American financial interests and expand our economic and military sphere of influence. Does that about sum it up?
Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket" is another essential piece of history that exposes the wickedness of American hegemony.
Learn the hard lessons and move forward. The US certainly has much to atone for, but our history of imperialism and Russia's even longer history, as horrible as they both are, should not be used nowadays as a cudgel to rationalize or excuse Putin's unprovoked attack on another sovereign nation. We should not let the past dictate the future or the actions that are the correct ones to implement today. To do so is to propagate Russian propaganda. Don't be a sucker like the Republican politicos sucking up to Trump -- and therefore to Putin.
There's a valid reason NATO exists; Putin just proved that in spades! Yes, the US military, by generally ignoring rampant corruption while foolishly trying to fulfill the jingoistic, dystopian nightmares of the neocons under the Village Idiot's regime, certainly fubared Afghanistan with endless war, which ended up as a convenient testing grounds for advanced weaponry and to hone the skills for both conventional and asymmetric warfare -- another bipartisan, foreign-policy boondoggle squandering blood and treasure.
Putin the forever ruler trying to fluff up his megalomaniacal ego has yet to learn the lesson of empires. (Hint: It's the same one for holes. )The famously bloated military-industrial complex of the US mega-metropolis empire is slowing realizing the limits of its projected power, you'd think anyway, after getting burned bigly in the Middle East by our longest and most senseless war.
Still, unlike Russia (if you're listening), the US Constitution and the UN Charter strictly forbids annexing any part of an unwilling country by brute force, certainly not the overthrow of its government. Period!
There's just no way to spin that key provision, so why is an an armed incursion across an internationally recognized border even up for debate, a direct violation of an agreement sacrosanct to all nations? The rest of the world needs to pull together for once and rein in this petty tyrant by every means possible short of armed confrontation. This cannot stand. The sad little man Putin and his worldly powers do not exist in a vacuum, nor is he infallible and unstoppable.
why then do we still own the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico? NATO is obsolete. It uses Hitman tactics ( extortion) to get what it wants. It has pushed into 15 former republics for the purpose of intimidating Russia. The US backed a fascist coup in Ukraine in 2014. NATO weakens all it’s members by spending billions on imaginary defense. Russia and China pies no threat to us militarily so why have a military force? “Certainly not the overthrow of its government”? The US backed the overthrow of the Ukraine govt did it not? The US has overthrown dozens of governments on every continent to make way for Fortune 500 plunder. For Dole pineapple, for Anaconda copper in Chile, for oil n Iraq and Iran in the 50s, etc. Simetimes like in Grenada we just do it to send the message: don’t resist or this is what you invite upon your neck. The US spends six times what either China or Russia spends and it’s costing us our democracy, we can’t have democracy And empire. Don’t be suckered by the military industrial intelligence complex.
It's not the 'what' they are doing or saying that is so troublesome (even though it is), it's the 'how' they're doing it: Right. In. The. Open.
Putin's little puppy, Diaper Don, needs an eternal time-out. As do any of those in support of either. Traitors to both human agency and the very essence of life itself must be neutralized. The consequence of not doing so is the neutralization of everything else...
Please give evidence to back up your Putin smearing instead of engaging in grade still name calling. Mueller’s report proved that there was no collusion except to those gullible enough to trust US intelligence. The Steele dossiers were pure rumor and fabrication, fully discredited. The CEO of Crowdstrike stated under oath his report was completely unfounded. Former NSA tech head Ray McGovern did forensics ( DNC refused FBI attempts to) and found the so called hacked Podesta emails were downloaded close to the computers and likely leaked onto a thumb drive by a unhappy Bernie fan working at that DNC office, since the leaks were All about Hillory rigging the primary. The MIC is harassing Russia to increase defense spending and to destroy Russia by forcing it to over militarize destabilize itself. Read Consortiumnews for honest independent journalism on US empire costs
Pure hogwash. The Mueller report proved hands down a willing and foolhardy collusion on the part of an eager Trump campaign that just didn't quite meet the legal definition of "conspiracy." And he proved ten instances of felony obstruction of justice, at least four of them slam-dunk cases. But the Justice Department felt compelled to honor an in-house memo not to indict a sitting president. No sober analysis of their suspicious activity in light of the preliminary evidence disputes that the FBI and other investigative bodies had a duty to scrutinize a campaign so intertwined with agents of an enemy antagonist bent on destroying our democracy. It would been a dereliction of duty not to have opened an investigation. Please, enough with conspiracy theories and historical rewrites!
Well, now I know what not to read. Mueller's report did raise multiple obstruction of justice offenses. Like Trump sez: "the mob takes the fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?" (which is hiding evidence/obstruction) If Steele had nothing, what is Trump's motive for slavishly cow-towing to Putin, with yucky flattery cherry on top? Eric says they get all the money they need from Moscow. You like that explanation better?
Why should I believe anything a Trump says? Why don’t you just read the Steele dossier yourself? It’s not long. I asked a friend to let me know when he found something in the Mueller report incriminating Russia but he never did because it’s based on Steele dossiers and Intell accusations . Tell me what Trump ever did for Putin? Trump sent arms and cash to Ukraine over sting objections from Putin, you call that cowtowing? Please do nform me if examples. Scapegoating Russia deters attention from the problem of U.S. militarism and empire expansion now at 800 military bases in 80 countries, the cost of which will be our democracy as economic destitution makes fertile ground for fascism. Read Chalmers Johnson, empire is not compatible with democracy. You participate in warmongering at our peril.
I happened to have read both the dossier and the Mueller report (which, being a glutton for punishment, I pored over twice when it came out, including all the supporting attachments.) Other than your non sequitur about "U.S. militarism and empire expansion" (a valid point in a different context), the other interpretations in the post are grossly mischaracterizing both the findings in the Steel dossier and the Mueller report.
While key parts of the dossier were unsubstantiated and widely panned, and while some of the other information within it was no doubt true, it was still only partially sourced as one small piece amongst a more substantial body of evidence and suspicious activity that triggered and expanded -- rightfully so -- the investigations into Trump's collusion with Russia to help his campaign.
The collusion, which occurred over a long period of time, while disgusting and un-American, did not quite reach the legal definition of "conspiracy with a foreign power to defraud the United States" or whatever the exact wording is. But whoa, it was sure close! Dang the luck!
Again, I submit that the legalese "conspiracy" would make your salient point a bit more, ah, truthier? Mere collusion was not what Mueller was looking for; it was by-god conspiracy on a different level altogether. The first part of his report did indeed demonstrate lots of collusion at every stage of the campaign in the form of electronic communications, phone calls, personal meetings, paper trails and recorded documents that tied a lot of it together as more of a Keystone Cops escapade, in which they were willing, no, begging for the Russians to come up with something, anything, they could use in the campaign.
But it wasn't like organized organized crime -- just stumblebum shit from politico novices that Putin gladly encouraged. Why not.? Anything to fck over the biggest (kinda) democracy. Tyrants-R-Us. The borderline criminality crossed the line at times. It just didn't rise to the exceptionally high bar of Mad Magazine Spy v Spy type of organized "criming" (a new word to emerge from the Trump epoch). So he skated free on the collusion. Womp. Womp.
The second part of the report, however, nailed him dead to rights on several blatant obstruction of justice felonies, intended for Congress and the DOJ to take up once trump was out of office. That was the plan anyway. And of course "...the best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong." - John Steinbeck.
But every such effort was 100% all about juicing Trump's election odds by finding dirt on his political opponents, by hook or by crook, foreign or domestic. Bigly. Being the mob boss, though, Trump shields his own puss-gut and fat ass from incoming fire by using human shields like his kids and other convenient sycophants du jour. Teflon Don. What a guy!
You're right that Putin wouldn't make military decisions, or any other decision for that matter, in which Trump's input or goofball influence would be welcomed seriously. What, is that a joke? Mother of Russia -- more vodka! I would never have consciously implied anything even close to such a ridiculous scene. Unless I'm reading you wrong, do tell, that subtle gas-lighting on your part (tells subconsciously projected) might have have been the left side of the brain arguing with the right in someone's skull that's not mine.
Putin only needed Trump not to fck with him while he strengthened his board position like a chess master. Trump's right about that at least; Putin's no dummy. He's evil as hell but not dumb like Trump, whom got seriously played, and by extension, so did the rest of our dying democracy. A buffoon full of shit, greed, and himself is an easy mark. Haha...or Putin's got the pee tapes! Ha! Oh how everyone on all sides wished that had been true just for the entertainment value. Missed again! Oh well.
And yeeaah, you're kinda right -- Trump himself didn't do much colluding if he could avoid it. Of course, there was that one time without proper vetting he brought a well-known, high-profile Russian intelligence officer with his own entourage, including their media apparatchik, into the Oval Office and stupidly revealed where some of our highly classified (Jaysus!) nuclear subs were lurking while bragging about his esoteric knowledge as the Big Bad President.
Not really related to the very narrow mission of the investigation, stuff like that the Mueller team just relegated to the "Oh well, whadayado pile" or maybe as a referral to some other department down the line. They just didn't have a whole lot of time and resources to squander on side excursions of lesser import to the primary objective.
Oh yeah, then there was that other time he met with Putin mano a mano with no advisors and just a notetaker, who was then promptly ordered to rip up the notes...and our side of the story. Reportedly, this wasn't a one-off, and we all now know his penchant for destroying government documents to hide his certain activities. Again, that goes to consciousness of guilt. Putin's side of history sure got out to the world though, didn't it? You should know.
And who can forget the time he potentially exposed state secrets in the presence of Xi Jinping while eating chocolate cake at Mar-a-Lago during some classified active measure he was conducting over his cell phone -- loud enough so that the whole table could eavesdrop! As usual, no security personnel waved him off. Nor would he care if they did. It's weird; he'll eat records and clog toilets with them in a fit of conscious-of-guilt paranoia and yet commit certain other damning acts right out in the open that would land mere mortals in a cold dark dungeon until their toes fell off.
One of the biggest reasons the Mueller report took so long and produced such anemic results in the first part was because the Trump campaign actually did a pretty good job of hiding the critical evidence. And a lot of key witnesses reside and are unreachable on foreign soil. Mueller also addresses that problem in his report.
Oh wow, and then Trump once... oh never mind; go read it yourself. And naturally, his whelps and close associates colluded here and there and everywhere on the down low -- that pesky consciousness of guilt cropping up again. And n the caricature of Don Jr., the collusion was not all that discreet -- a chip off the old block. And to win faovor and status with "the boss" the campaign go-getters eagerly gobbled up whatever planted Russian kompromat the guys in the black fedoras spoon-fed 'em. "Russia, if you're listening..." They were and they are.
None of this is surprising...to anyone, friends or enemies or your dog glued to the TV. You know -- Trump! Everybody knows. How many indictments and convictions to date before and after the Trump crime family was 86'd from the White Man House? Hard to keep track.
Contrary to the ubiquitous right-wing spin and gross distortion of history popular in the seedy alleyways of Trump World and Fux News, Trump lent his stature as a US president to do Putin's bidding by simply doing nothing, basically, by not interfering with the modernization of Russia's military buildup to invasion. As always with Putin, no one is sure why, when, or how he might pull off his next caper.
We do know now. The greatest gift Trump gave Putin was to allow himself to be used as a useful idiot by weakening NATO and Ukraine for several years. In military parlance, that would be called softening the target. FYI: The only reason he finally released Zelensky's congressionally approved aid package, which was ready to go and which he withheld illegally for corrupt personal reasons, was because the adults had to cajole him into doing the right thing, which he did reluctantly, in character.
Based on solid evidence backed up with intelligence from allies, our agencies had been loudly warning Trump for years about the threat Putin posed to Ukraine, which he mostly ignored or didn't comprehend or didn't care about, like most of the other intelligence presented to him that didn't come with pictures and crayons. Or his name sprinkled throughout the briefings, appealing to his ego. By blackmailing and bribing Zelensky for crass political purposes, to falsely dig up dirt on Biden's kid, for which he was impeached the first time, Trump the Patsy played right into Putin's sweaty little hands, thereby strengthening Russia's position and weakening Zelenski's, emboldening further aggression by Putin.
BTW, the entire second half of the Mueller report laid out a 100-percent prosecutable case for felony obstruction of justice against Trump on multiple occasions, as mentioned in an earlier reply to a different post, I forget which. Obstruction of justice is considered one of the worst violations in our justice system, as it undermines the whole foundation of our laws, that no one is above accountability.
One final point to contemplate: Why do you think Putin waited until Biden was in office before he invaded? And why did he take Crimea during the Obama administration? Republicans are trying to spin it that it's because Putin considers Democratic leaders weak pushovers and the Republican Party a strong deterrent.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Putin understands the dynamic of red/blue politics in our country better than most Americans. He likes Republicans because they largely think as he does and mostly leave him alone to persecute his own people and to pursue more power and influence by strengthening his military and stature in the world. He doesn't want to screw up that sweet deal, so he saves his dirtiest deeds for a Democratic administration to struggle with and to maximize the political strife in our country, which is one of Putin's primary strategic goals.
You participate in Russian propaganda at our peril.
The Zelensky bribery affair was all true and did lead to Trump’s impeachment. But it had nothing to do with Putin. Putin and Zelensky are not on speaking terms.
You do seem to have read both reports because all you have to say about them are vague accusations with not a shred of evidence. Characterizing characterizations isn’t real persuasive. Could you please give us an example of what you thought was compelling, I’ve read often that it’s all based on Intell reports and the bought Steele report which was pretty not used as fodder for corporate media headlines and non journalism. Both reports are devoid if proof of Russian collusion, even the NYT has recently admitted that. There was another report. The NSA FBI and CIA put out a joint report, it’s also very vague, and includes wording close to this: Nothing contained here is proven to be factual”. It too was meant to be used loosely as evidence by the media, it seems. We’ve become accustomed to accept opinion as fact it seems.
As to participating in Russian propaganda, I suggest you go read some of Consortiumnews, it’s got a varied number of authors, read their credentials. Many are former CIA and NSA analysts. The founder Robert Parry was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for unearthing much of the Watergate scandal. CN won the prestigious I.F. Stone award. It worth looking at. You can search it for past articles. It’s not Russian propaganda just because it attacks some democrats. It’s a left leaning journal.
As to your scarcity in f evidence of Trump helping Putin and your inability to respond to my point that Trump not Obama armed Ukraine. You point to Trumps unwillingness to halt Putin from “ modernizing and building up” his weapons. Have you ever seen a U.S. president able to do that? Congress adds to the budget for jobs. What makes you think Putin gives a damn what Trump wants?? Talk about going out on a tangent! That’s a real stretcher. It’s late ghabke, really. Putin s surrounded by US missiles, US subs off his coast, and you really think Trump the idiot is going to influence Russian military policy?
Where’s your evidence Putin’s goal is maximizing political strife here? US Intell no doubt. OK, believe what you want, just remember Intell ( like Mueller as head if FBI) led us u
Into war n Uraq, Afghanistan, Kynua, Syria, all of which we destroyed. Led us into Vietnam (CIA was in every province there). Tell Julian Assange and Ed Snowden and other leakers how much you believe our intelligence. With a straight face, if you can
Jesus, dude, you're all over the place. Tighten it up. And I'm not your research monkey. If you are that exercised about the Mueller report, then why are you relying on what others have said? Why not just read the damn thing yourself? It's more a study than a story -- dense and very hard to read, and you'll have to reread many sections. But it will address lot of your misconceptions and gaps in knowledge that you've advertised on this thread.
Although you've been graciously gifted a general and fairly accurate overview of the evidence uncovered in the Mueller report, I have a gut feeling you are one of those contentious trolls who wouldn't be satisfied even if some fool typed out all 448 pages in a skinning little column on Thom's Blog, because you obviously have put more faith in Russian intelligence than our own. Can't help you there, buddy. "You pays your money, and you takes your chances."
But here's some cutting and pasting to get you started down the right path:
Key findings:
The investigation produced 37 indictments; seven guilty pleas or convictions; and compelling evidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions. Mueller also uncovered and referred 14 criminal matters to other components of the Department of Justice.
Trump associates repeatedly lied to investigators about their contacts with Russians, and President Trump refused to answer questions about his efforts to impede federal proceedings and influence the testimony of witnesses.
A statement signed by over 1,000 former federal prosecutors concluded that if any other American engaged in the same efforts to impede federal proceedings the way Trump did, they would likely be indicted for multiple charges of obstruction of justice.
Russian interference in the 2016 election was “sweeping and systemic.”[1]
Major attack avenues included a social media “information warfare” campaign that “favored” candidate Trump[2] and the hacking of Clinton campaign-related databases and release of stolen materials through Russian-created entities and Wikileaks.[3]
Russia also targeted databases in many states related to administering elections gaining access to information for millions of registered voters.[4]
In 2015 and 2016, Michael Cohen pursued a hotel/residence project in Moscow on behalf of Trump while he was campaigning for President.[5] Then-candidate Trump personally signed a letter of intent.
Senior members of the Trump campaign, including Paul Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner took a June 9, 2016, meeting with Russian nationals at Trump Tower, New York, after outreach from an intermediary informed Trump, Jr., that the Russians had derogatory information on Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”[6]
Beginning in June 2016, a Trump associate “forecast to senior [Trump] Campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release information damaging to candidate Clinton.”[7] A section of the Report that remains heavily redacted suggests that Roger Stone was this associate and that he had significant contacts with the campaign about Wikileaks.[8]
The Report described multiple occasions where Trump associates lied to investigators about Trump associate contacts with Russia. Trump associates George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen all admitted that they made false statements to federal investigators or to Congress about their contacts. In addition, Roger Stone faces trial this fall for obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements, and one count of witness tampering.
The Report contains no evidence that any Trump campaign official reported their contacts with Russia or WikiLeaks to U.S. law enforcement authorities during the campaign or presidential transition, despite public reports on Russian hacking starting in June 2016 and candidate Trump’s August 2016 intelligence briefing warning him that Russia was seeking to interfere in the election.
The Report raised questions about why Trump associates and then-candidate Trump repeatedly asserted Trump had no connections to Russia.[9]
The Mueller Report states that if the Special Counsel’s Office felt they could clear the president of wrongdoing, they would have said so. Instead, the Report explicitly states that it “does not exonerate” the President[10] and explains that the Office of Special Counsel “accepted” the Department of Justice policy that a sitting President cannot be indicted.[11]
The Mueller report details multiple episodes in which there is evidence that the President obstructed justice. The pattern of conduct and the manner in which the President sought to impede investigations—including through one-on-one meetings with senior officials—is damning to the President.
Five episodes of obstructive conduct stand out as being particularly serious:
In June 2017 President Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to order the firing of the Special Counsel after press reports that Mueller was investigating the President for obstruction of justice;[12] months later Trump asked McGahn to falsely refute press accounts reporting this directive and create a false paper record on this issue – all of which McGahn refused to do.[13]
After National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was fired in February 2017 for lying to FBI investigators about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, Trump cleared his office for a one-on-one meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and asked Comey to “let [Flynn] go;” he also asked then-Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland to draft an internal memo saying Trump did not direct Flynn to call Kislyak, which McFarland did not do because she did not know whether that was true.[14]
In July 2017, the President directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to instruct the Attorney General to limit Mueller’s investigation, a step the Report asserted “was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the President’s and his campaign’s conduct.”[15]
In 2017 and 2018, the President asked the Attorney General to “un-recuse” himself from the Mueller inquiry, actions from which a “reasonable inference” could be made that “the President believed that an unrecused Attorney General would play a protective role and could shield the President from the ongoing Russia Investigation.”[16]
The Report raises questions about whether the President, by and through his private attorneys, floated the possibility of pardons for the purpose of influencing the cooperation of Flynn, Manafort, and an unnamed person with law enforcement.[17]
Congress needs to continue investigating and assessing elements of the Mueller Report
The redactions of the Mueller Report appear to conceal the extent to which the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of the release of hacked emails by WikiLeaks. For instance, redactions conceal content of discussions that the Report states occurred between Trump, Cohen, and Manafort in July 2016 shortly after Wikileaks released hacked emails;[18] the Report further notes, “Trump told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming,” but redacts the contextual information around that statement.[19]
A second issue the Report does not examine is the fact that the President was involved in conduct that was the subject of a case the Special Counsel referred to the Southern District of New York – which the Report notes “ultimately led to the conviction of Cohen in the Southern District of New York for campaign-finance offenses related to payments he said he made at the direction of the President.”[20]
The Report also redacts in entirety its discussion of 12 of the 14 matters Mueller referred to other law enforcement authorities.[21]
Further, the Report details non-cooperation with the inquiry by the President, including refusing requests by the Special Counsel for an interview; providing written responses that the Office of the Special Counsel considered “incomplete” and “imprecise” and that involved the President stating on “more than 30 occasions that he ‘does not recall’ or ‘remember’ or ‘have an independent recollection.’”[22]
[1] Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Election Vol. I, 1-5 (2019).
The fact that Republicans are using the invasion as partisan fodder is reprehensible and predictable. But so is the 32 year history of US manipulations and intimidations towards the former and chaotic republics of the USSR. Yeltzin was lauded here as a great president because he let Goldman Sachs and their neoliberalism take control of privatization schemes, they inhabited the Kremlin, and helped pillage the country, part if the blowback was Putin, he was trusted as a patriot. Now we have our dubs patrolling the Black Sea and missiles n Turkey and Poland. Have you read Putin’s speech frim Wednesday? You should. He deserves the respect of being heard. He wants NATO to draw back. The US backed the fascist coup in Ukraine, invited them to join NATO. There are a lot of ethnic Fussians in Ukraine and they don’t want to be part of the American empire, no more do than the Crimeans who voted 90% to join Russia. This invasion is 100% caused by, provoked by the US. Putin days he does not want to control Ukraine and that he’s looking for named fascists who have killed Russians. He says he wants NATO to pull back. Russia lost 27 million people the last time the west invaded through Ukraine, before that Napoleon invaded through Ukraine. It’s high time we stop intimidating and lying about foreign leaders who have the courage to reject US aggression
It's very difficult to understand how Florida's voters have elected Senator Rick Scott, and why they supported him as their governor from 2011-19. However, they did, and Florida's percentage of retired people depending on Medicare and Social Security is very high:
"About 21 percent of Florida’s population -- about 3.9 million people -- receive Social Security benefits. About 4 million Floridians use Medicare for health insurance."
There is obviously a challenge with the narratives that get to voters from both the Democratic Party and the Republican party. And name-calling is equally ineffective. Independent voters appear to dislike significant portions of both the Liberal and the Conservative rants, and those voters are hungry for adult conversations that are respectful of both sides of the political arena.
Perhaps it would be more productive to figure out how to replace Senator Scott with a person with common sense that is neither liberal nor conservative. Raising the income cap for Social Security and adopting a Medicare-for-All is certainly common sense-and may focus voters in Florida.
Are you having trouble absorbing content? Perhaps peruse the original source material rather than trying to relitigate thousands of pieces of evidence and documents in small passages on someone's blog, gleaned from misinformation you've cherry-picked on the internet's web of lies. Particularly, you might find it beneficial to study Part II of the Mueller report instead of relying on what some friend might have related.
Trump's obstruction of justice had everything to do with Putin -- it was a direct consequence of his effort to stop an investigation into his collusion with Putin and his operatives, who led him down the primrose path with the phony prospect of a Trump Tower in downtown Moscow, appealing to his greed and ego, which are the only assets Trump possesses.
His only saving grace, as far as not being charged with conspiracy and dragged off his throne, was that the investigators determined that he was merely an unwitting fool suckered by Putin, rather than an active agent formally plotting in the backrooms against our government. They exposed the myth of Trump's genius. In other words, the only reason he's not sitting in US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum is that he's too goddamn stupid to be trusted by real spies.
We must all remember the several meetings between Trump and Putin for which we have no transcripts, no agendas, no translator notes, nothing. We just see the Donald fawning over Putin. We will never know what was said or agreed to. Never.
I just want to know what you found that incriminates Putin. You said you read the Steele dossier which the republicans and democrats paid for, after the Democrats in the DNC headquarters refused to let the FBI do forensics on. As I said, it’s very curious you can’t give us evidence of collusion after Mueller spent years and had the full Federal Intell at his disposal, you’re saying there’s no evidence because Trump isn’t reliable? Did not Mueller print all his findings? Did not a DC District judge order Mueller to cease claiming the 13 indicted IRA workers and IRA itself had connections to the Russian givt? Why can’t you show us your evidence? Perhaps there is none?
I don’t know why Putin waited until Biden got in do you? Perhaps in hopes of a chance at detente which has been his goal for decades. Or perhaps for some reason totally unrelated to who is president as he has stated that we have the same problem he has, a military bureaucracy accountable only to itself.
I’m sure glad those clever prosecutors exposed Trumps genius. Please give us some evidence of Russian collusion and quit stinewalling
I am a Cold-Warrior previously stationed in Frankfurt; we were ready to fight the Russians should they come through the Fulda Gap. Years later, back home, I was looking at a beautiful coat in Macy's and it shocked me that it was made in Russia. It took a long time to get to that point and to where we let many, many Russians emigrate. So, if you want to know what their country is like, listen to THEM. It's easy to find books by people who have dealt with Putin and his little reign of terror on gays, journalists, and anyone working for democracy. "The Man Without A Face" by Masha Gessen is a good read to start with.
The NY Times had a front-page column: "Russians Wake-up To Discover They Didn't Really Know Putin". They thought he was stable and kept the country on an even keel. Surprise! He's a psychopath, and that means he is the only person living in his head. No one knows what he is doing or thinking. I think he sh*t the bed this time, but we shall see what happens when the dead soldiers start coming home in boxes. Let's see what their Committee of Soldiers' Mothers do.
Republicans already backed a loser-psychopath, and now they are hell-bent on doing it again. How very conservative of them!?
I was stationed at Marienheide for 18 months as part of SASCOM. Beautiful countryside. Putin's Russia has always been and is today the main security threat facing Europe... and now the world... again. One step forward, two steps backward.
We kept an eye on the Soviet Military Liaison Mission. I guess that's why I have stayed interested in them. Thank YOU for serving as well. Oh the stories we could tell....
Categorizing someone as either liberal or conservative is labelling that person, i.e., name-calling them, but within the acceptable lexicon of polite political discourse. Yet, on the mean streets of real-life, that’s hard to do when a huge majority of a major party has convinced itself that the path to one-party rule is to lie about everything all the time, big and small, and cheat like hell despite the mortal blows to the civility required for a functioning democracy — with which they fundamentally disagree, making it abundantly clear — as long as they can falsely portray their political opponents as the illegitimate sperm of Satan, sacrificing babies and drinking their blood... or maybe sprinkling it on their pizzas in the basement. Democrats are part of a pedophile ring, too — a worldwide cabal of ‘em! No, really, swear to God.
So, how does one give malicious gibberish equal weight in a normal, give-and-take debate? Right, like we’re going to argue over childish nonsense with an all-time L-O-S-E-R, pouting and stomping his feet because the mean-old DemocRATs swiped an entire national election despite 99.999% of every scrap of evidence under every rock to the contrary. And very, very bad people — socialists! — pulled off this, yes, unbelievable caper right under the noses of an entire planet fixated on one of history’s most fascinating watershed elections? Simply amazing!
And get this: The sneaky bastards ran this scam undetected behind the backs of nearly everyone in the world’s most technologically savvy, overly monitored nation — 168.31 million motivated and registered voters, as of 2020, who can do basic reading, ’riting, and ‘rithmatic. Tricky, those wascally wabbits! Can you believe it? Nope.
But you know what, thinking about it cynically — it’s hard not to — let’s falsely assume the word salad burgers of conspiRACISTS have a speck of protein and the Democratic Party machine actually cheated in our highly localized and incredibly complex voting system (It did not.) beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations. If that’s truly the case, then who would you want really running things in a ruthless and complex world full of win-at-all-cost assholes: intelligent and capable progressives who know how to play the game and get shit done to help their fellow citizens; or, stupid and immoral liars and losers (Republicans... in case you’re still confused) whose primitive mentalities, attitudes, and policies only hurt and kill people and other living things while ruining our beautiful planet for fun and profit, or worse, for egocentric, religio-whacko, white-national tribalism? The dumber-than-dumb Retrumplicans let those dang DumbocRATs fool the hell out of ‘em again. Haha, gotcha!
Labeling and name-calling in politics are irresistible behaviors, old as dirt. Whether it’s acceptable and/or effective is in the eye of the beholder. We know juvenile trolling is not a feely-touchy concern for Trumpees who wallow in raw sewage. Neither does it seem to bother much the mythical “independents” and “swing” voters who aren’t really sure, apparently, about anything. Just how many wobbly fence-sitters are up for grabs, anyway, who are still scratching their little pinheads after six miserable years of an egomaniacal baboon constantly mugging for the cameras and his 30,000-plus, bald-faced lies constantly clogging our devices since he descended the golden elevator in his golden tower like a Greek god waving benevolently to the cheering surfs, a crowd of paid supporters secretly laughing at him — a complete farce like everything else in his life?
But, going with the flow, it seems corporate media loves to portray lefty sissies as weak and toothless intellectuals unwilling to fight it out down in the mud and the blood like Herr Drumpf’s fascist Brownshirts of the new Reich. Evidently, the problem ain’t that weepy libtards are mean; it’s that they ain’t mean enough. Mealy-mouthed weaklings are universally despised.
Since it’s always, “damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” liberal progressives — the good guys — may as well err on the side of righteousness and fight fascist bastards on all fronts (nonviolently, it’s necessary to say nowadays, like Woody Guthrie and all the other great heroes for the common folks). Politely or not.
At the end of the day before election day, all that should matter is that voters see the truth of things beyond all the shade — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Democracies survive and thrive in sunlight. Why is such a universal principle so damn hard for radical Retrumplicans to accept? The answer is in the question.
"The truth is out there, Scully" ...in the previous posts.
Time for a little honesty. You are accusing others of what you are doing on steroids: throwing out erroneous accusations without evidence. And your questionable sourcing includes a lot of other people's mistaken notions. That's how thought viruses spread from the diseased swamps in La La Land.
But it seems your most malicious attacks are reserved almost exclusively for Democrats and American intelligence services while largely excusing or downplaying Republican and Russian outright fabrications -- the very people most responsible for spreading disinformation about the Mueller investigation. Sure, a few mild softballs are hurled at the bad actors on the reich, but token nods don't quite get you to that Fux News "fair and balanced" level of hypocritical fantasy.
I don't know if trolls realize how their own words betray them. They should stay downwind from their prey.
At least you could slow down enough to work the spell-checker and "quit stinewalling." 🤣 (Never have hopped onto a stine and took it walling, but it sounds like a blast.)
Take a few deep breaths, sweetie. I humbly add the observation, that there is additional irony that honest, hardworking election managers successfully expanded secure access for the sake of trying to save lives in a historic pandemic. Only to be treated like evil scum.
How about a simple current history of Russia to remind Americans what it's like to live under Putin. How would a truck convoy blocking the Kremlin go over do you think? They'd all be hung in Red Square. Most people in this country don't know what ordinary life is like in Russia today. And that is what the Trump Republicans want to turn this country into.
The agreement made with the Soviet Union was that if they allowed the reunification of German, a country that had incited two wars and invasions of the Soviet Union, then the United States would not expand the NATO military organization to the east and threaten the Soviets. The United States has repeatedly violated that agreement once it got the reunification, it sought to sell new military weapons to the new NATO members who are forced to convert to new ones made by American, British, and French firms.
A Lend Lease by FDR was a way to get the Soviets to do all the fighting while Americans stayed at home, much as with the firsth World War. The end result was 20 million people dead in the Soviet Union as compared to less than half a million Americans. The Soviet armies fought against 80 German divisions as compared to fewer than 20 divisions with the allies armies. The Soviets crushed the Japanese armies in Manchuria and Korea and accomlished more in the first 3 weeks with their invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 (requested by FDR) than the U.S. military accomplished in 4 years of fighting for its former colonies in the Pacific.
Imagine the response if Putin established military bases in Mexico and Cuba and Venezuela and supplied them with missles systems as the U.S. has done across Europe and the Middle East. The U.S. launched illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and devasted the countries and caused the deaths of millions of civilians but that is different?
FDR was presiding over about the same percentage of fascist sympathizers as Biden is today. This schism seems to be in American DNA. Surely the Soviets had their own motives. Patton thought so. I think a quibble may be made with invasion of Afghanistan. As for Iraq, I think an argument can be made that "the U.S.", in terms of the citizenry, aren't guilty of that. Remember the truly mass mass marches, in despite of grossly bogus propaganda that caused hysteria among the (go back to) same percentage of innate fascist sympathizers, and the pandering media. (Hans Blix U.N. arms inspection report was "buried" low on far inside page of San Francisco Chronicle, with front page filled with LeBron James, then just a teenager from Ohio.) This is a "response" I can't resist, but when shall we take pity on Ukraine, now; today? None of the past gives Putin the right, no matter who didn't have the right to whatever back into the mists of time!
That's correct. After the Soviet Union collapsed, its former satellites legitimately became sovereign nations free to choose their own alliances and destinies without paying homage to the biggest bully on the block. Accept the reality of the present rather than the fantasies of the past. Sadly for poor Mr. Putin, most of them chose NATO over his tin-pot dictatorship. Go figure.
Read Cinfessions of An Economic Hitman for an accurate understanding of how the U.S. empire works. Without a Union the Soviet republics ( as well as Russia itself which in desperation under Yeltzin took Goldman Sachs top managers literally into the Kremlin to oversee neoliberal privatization schemes) were weak and susceptible to grifter mobs that cut deals with the US for NATO incursion. They were bought while Russia was on its knees. Putin had to rebuild Russia after its plunder by capitalists under alcoholic Yeltzin. Yet all we hear in our Wall St. owned media is that NATO saved the 15 republics from the threat of Russia. BTW Crimea voted to join Russia as soon as the U.S. backed fascist coup in Ukraine occurred. Not one shot was fired. Crimea just chose to leave Ukraine and it’s ties to the US.
I read that, and also Perkin's sequel, "The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman." These are both must-reads for people to understand the truly evil nature of America's earlier tactics of underhanded empire-building using economic weapons, via the NSA. Those spooks along with the cooperation of the CIA were tasked to rape third-world countries for their raw resources as payment on hopeless sovereign debt, which operatives like John Perkins enticed them into. Their already impoverished taxpayers had to pay back the loans until they no longer could, which resulted in the forfeiture of their resources as payment, which served to enrich American financial interests and expand our economic and military sphere of influence. Does that about sum it up?
Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket" is another essential piece of history that exposes the wickedness of American hegemony.
Learn the hard lessons and move forward. The US certainly has much to atone for, but our history of imperialism and Russia's even longer history, as horrible as they both are, should not be used nowadays as a cudgel to rationalize or excuse Putin's unprovoked attack on another sovereign nation. We should not let the past dictate the future or the actions that are the correct ones to implement today. To do so is to propagate Russian propaganda. Don't be a sucker like the Republican politicos sucking up to Trump -- and therefore to Putin.
I dunno, kinda sounds like Russian propaganda...
Back in the 1950s the wacky John Birch Society insisted there were “agents of Moscow” hiding in the U.S government. Maybe they were right after all!
Yes, in the GOP: the Government Of Putin.
🤣
There's a valid reason NATO exists; Putin just proved that in spades! Yes, the US military, by generally ignoring rampant corruption while foolishly trying to fulfill the jingoistic, dystopian nightmares of the neocons under the Village Idiot's regime, certainly fubared Afghanistan with endless war, which ended up as a convenient testing grounds for advanced weaponry and to hone the skills for both conventional and asymmetric warfare -- another bipartisan, foreign-policy boondoggle squandering blood and treasure.
Putin the forever ruler trying to fluff up his megalomaniacal ego has yet to learn the lesson of empires. (Hint: It's the same one for holes. )The famously bloated military-industrial complex of the US mega-metropolis empire is slowing realizing the limits of its projected power, you'd think anyway, after getting burned bigly in the Middle East by our longest and most senseless war.
Still, unlike Russia (if you're listening), the US Constitution and the UN Charter strictly forbids annexing any part of an unwilling country by brute force, certainly not the overthrow of its government. Period!
There's just no way to spin that key provision, so why is an an armed incursion across an internationally recognized border even up for debate, a direct violation of an agreement sacrosanct to all nations? The rest of the world needs to pull together for once and rein in this petty tyrant by every means possible short of armed confrontation. This cannot stand. The sad little man Putin and his worldly powers do not exist in a vacuum, nor is he infallible and unstoppable.
why then do we still own the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico? NATO is obsolete. It uses Hitman tactics ( extortion) to get what it wants. It has pushed into 15 former republics for the purpose of intimidating Russia. The US backed a fascist coup in Ukraine in 2014. NATO weakens all it’s members by spending billions on imaginary defense. Russia and China pies no threat to us militarily so why have a military force? “Certainly not the overthrow of its government”? The US backed the overthrow of the Ukraine govt did it not? The US has overthrown dozens of governments on every continent to make way for Fortune 500 plunder. For Dole pineapple, for Anaconda copper in Chile, for oil n Iraq and Iran in the 50s, etc. Simetimes like in Grenada we just do it to send the message: don’t resist or this is what you invite upon your neck. The US spends six times what either China or Russia spends and it’s costing us our democracy, we can’t have democracy And empire. Don’t be suckered by the military industrial intelligence complex.
Wow... That's a brilliant read.
It's not the 'what' they are doing or saying that is so troublesome (even though it is), it's the 'how' they're doing it: Right. In. The. Open.
Putin's little puppy, Diaper Don, needs an eternal time-out. As do any of those in support of either. Traitors to both human agency and the very essence of life itself must be neutralized. The consequence of not doing so is the neutralization of everything else...
Please give evidence to back up your Putin smearing instead of engaging in grade still name calling. Mueller’s report proved that there was no collusion except to those gullible enough to trust US intelligence. The Steele dossiers were pure rumor and fabrication, fully discredited. The CEO of Crowdstrike stated under oath his report was completely unfounded. Former NSA tech head Ray McGovern did forensics ( DNC refused FBI attempts to) and found the so called hacked Podesta emails were downloaded close to the computers and likely leaked onto a thumb drive by a unhappy Bernie fan working at that DNC office, since the leaks were All about Hillory rigging the primary. The MIC is harassing Russia to increase defense spending and to destroy Russia by forcing it to over militarize destabilize itself. Read Consortiumnews for honest independent journalism on US empire costs
Pure hogwash. The Mueller report proved hands down a willing and foolhardy collusion on the part of an eager Trump campaign that just didn't quite meet the legal definition of "conspiracy." And he proved ten instances of felony obstruction of justice, at least four of them slam-dunk cases. But the Justice Department felt compelled to honor an in-house memo not to indict a sitting president. No sober analysis of their suspicious activity in light of the preliminary evidence disputes that the FBI and other investigative bodies had a duty to scrutinize a campaign so intertwined with agents of an enemy antagonist bent on destroying our democracy. It would been a dereliction of duty not to have opened an investigation. Please, enough with conspiracy theories and historical rewrites!
Well, now I know what not to read. Mueller's report did raise multiple obstruction of justice offenses. Like Trump sez: "the mob takes the fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?" (which is hiding evidence/obstruction) If Steele had nothing, what is Trump's motive for slavishly cow-towing to Putin, with yucky flattery cherry on top? Eric says they get all the money they need from Moscow. You like that explanation better?
Why should I believe anything a Trump says? Why don’t you just read the Steele dossier yourself? It’s not long. I asked a friend to let me know when he found something in the Mueller report incriminating Russia but he never did because it’s based on Steele dossiers and Intell accusations . Tell me what Trump ever did for Putin? Trump sent arms and cash to Ukraine over sting objections from Putin, you call that cowtowing? Please do nform me if examples. Scapegoating Russia deters attention from the problem of U.S. militarism and empire expansion now at 800 military bases in 80 countries, the cost of which will be our democracy as economic destitution makes fertile ground for fascism. Read Chalmers Johnson, empire is not compatible with democracy. You participate in warmongering at our peril.
I happened to have read both the dossier and the Mueller report (which, being a glutton for punishment, I pored over twice when it came out, including all the supporting attachments.) Other than your non sequitur about "U.S. militarism and empire expansion" (a valid point in a different context), the other interpretations in the post are grossly mischaracterizing both the findings in the Steel dossier and the Mueller report.
While key parts of the dossier were unsubstantiated and widely panned, and while some of the other information within it was no doubt true, it was still only partially sourced as one small piece amongst a more substantial body of evidence and suspicious activity that triggered and expanded -- rightfully so -- the investigations into Trump's collusion with Russia to help his campaign.
The collusion, which occurred over a long period of time, while disgusting and un-American, did not quite reach the legal definition of "conspiracy with a foreign power to defraud the United States" or whatever the exact wording is. But whoa, it was sure close! Dang the luck!
🧑🏫Collude -- "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTRKCXC0JFg
Again, I submit that the legalese "conspiracy" would make your salient point a bit more, ah, truthier? Mere collusion was not what Mueller was looking for; it was by-god conspiracy on a different level altogether. The first part of his report did indeed demonstrate lots of collusion at every stage of the campaign in the form of electronic communications, phone calls, personal meetings, paper trails and recorded documents that tied a lot of it together as more of a Keystone Cops escapade, in which they were willing, no, begging for the Russians to come up with something, anything, they could use in the campaign.
But it wasn't like organized organized crime -- just stumblebum shit from politico novices that Putin gladly encouraged. Why not.? Anything to fck over the biggest (kinda) democracy. Tyrants-R-Us. The borderline criminality crossed the line at times. It just didn't rise to the exceptionally high bar of Mad Magazine Spy v Spy type of organized "criming" (a new word to emerge from the Trump epoch). So he skated free on the collusion. Womp. Womp.
The second part of the report, however, nailed him dead to rights on several blatant obstruction of justice felonies, intended for Congress and the DOJ to take up once trump was out of office. That was the plan anyway. And of course "...the best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong." - John Steinbeck.
But every such effort was 100% all about juicing Trump's election odds by finding dirt on his political opponents, by hook or by crook, foreign or domestic. Bigly. Being the mob boss, though, Trump shields his own puss-gut and fat ass from incoming fire by using human shields like his kids and other convenient sycophants du jour. Teflon Don. What a guy!
You're right that Putin wouldn't make military decisions, or any other decision for that matter, in which Trump's input or goofball influence would be welcomed seriously. What, is that a joke? Mother of Russia -- more vodka! I would never have consciously implied anything even close to such a ridiculous scene. Unless I'm reading you wrong, do tell, that subtle gas-lighting on your part (tells subconsciously projected) might have have been the left side of the brain arguing with the right in someone's skull that's not mine.
Putin only needed Trump not to fck with him while he strengthened his board position like a chess master. Trump's right about that at least; Putin's no dummy. He's evil as hell but not dumb like Trump, whom got seriously played, and by extension, so did the rest of our dying democracy. A buffoon full of shit, greed, and himself is an easy mark. Haha...or Putin's got the pee tapes! Ha! Oh how everyone on all sides wished that had been true just for the entertainment value. Missed again! Oh well.
And yeeaah, you're kinda right -- Trump himself didn't do much colluding if he could avoid it. Of course, there was that one time without proper vetting he brought a well-known, high-profile Russian intelligence officer with his own entourage, including their media apparatchik, into the Oval Office and stupidly revealed where some of our highly classified (Jaysus!) nuclear subs were lurking while bragging about his esoteric knowledge as the Big Bad President.
Not really related to the very narrow mission of the investigation, stuff like that the Mueller team just relegated to the "Oh well, whadayado pile" or maybe as a referral to some other department down the line. They just didn't have a whole lot of time and resources to squander on side excursions of lesser import to the primary objective.
Oh yeah, then there was that other time he met with Putin mano a mano with no advisors and just a notetaker, who was then promptly ordered to rip up the notes...and our side of the story. Reportedly, this wasn't a one-off, and we all now know his penchant for destroying government documents to hide his certain activities. Again, that goes to consciousness of guilt. Putin's side of history sure got out to the world though, didn't it? You should know.
And who can forget the time he potentially exposed state secrets in the presence of Xi Jinping while eating chocolate cake at Mar-a-Lago during some classified active measure he was conducting over his cell phone -- loud enough so that the whole table could eavesdrop! As usual, no security personnel waved him off. Nor would he care if they did. It's weird; he'll eat records and clog toilets with them in a fit of conscious-of-guilt paranoia and yet commit certain other damning acts right out in the open that would land mere mortals in a cold dark dungeon until their toes fell off.
One of the biggest reasons the Mueller report took so long and produced such anemic results in the first part was because the Trump campaign actually did a pretty good job of hiding the critical evidence. And a lot of key witnesses reside and are unreachable on foreign soil. Mueller also addresses that problem in his report.
Oh wow, and then Trump once... oh never mind; go read it yourself. And naturally, his whelps and close associates colluded here and there and everywhere on the down low -- that pesky consciousness of guilt cropping up again. And n the caricature of Don Jr., the collusion was not all that discreet -- a chip off the old block. And to win faovor and status with "the boss" the campaign go-getters eagerly gobbled up whatever planted Russian kompromat the guys in the black fedoras spoon-fed 'em. "Russia, if you're listening..." They were and they are.
None of this is surprising...to anyone, friends or enemies or your dog glued to the TV. You know -- Trump! Everybody knows. How many indictments and convictions to date before and after the Trump crime family was 86'd from the White Man House? Hard to keep track.
Contrary to the ubiquitous right-wing spin and gross distortion of history popular in the seedy alleyways of Trump World and Fux News, Trump lent his stature as a US president to do Putin's bidding by simply doing nothing, basically, by not interfering with the modernization of Russia's military buildup to invasion. As always with Putin, no one is sure why, when, or how he might pull off his next caper.
We do know now. The greatest gift Trump gave Putin was to allow himself to be used as a useful idiot by weakening NATO and Ukraine for several years. In military parlance, that would be called softening the target. FYI: The only reason he finally released Zelensky's congressionally approved aid package, which was ready to go and which he withheld illegally for corrupt personal reasons, was because the adults had to cajole him into doing the right thing, which he did reluctantly, in character.
Based on solid evidence backed up with intelligence from allies, our agencies had been loudly warning Trump for years about the threat Putin posed to Ukraine, which he mostly ignored or didn't comprehend or didn't care about, like most of the other intelligence presented to him that didn't come with pictures and crayons. Or his name sprinkled throughout the briefings, appealing to his ego. By blackmailing and bribing Zelensky for crass political purposes, to falsely dig up dirt on Biden's kid, for which he was impeached the first time, Trump the Patsy played right into Putin's sweaty little hands, thereby strengthening Russia's position and weakening Zelenski's, emboldening further aggression by Putin.
BTW, the entire second half of the Mueller report laid out a 100-percent prosecutable case for felony obstruction of justice against Trump on multiple occasions, as mentioned in an earlier reply to a different post, I forget which. Obstruction of justice is considered one of the worst violations in our justice system, as it undermines the whole foundation of our laws, that no one is above accountability.
One final point to contemplate: Why do you think Putin waited until Biden was in office before he invaded? And why did he take Crimea during the Obama administration? Republicans are trying to spin it that it's because Putin considers Democratic leaders weak pushovers and the Republican Party a strong deterrent.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Putin understands the dynamic of red/blue politics in our country better than most Americans. He likes Republicans because they largely think as he does and mostly leave him alone to persecute his own people and to pursue more power and influence by strengthening his military and stature in the world. He doesn't want to screw up that sweet deal, so he saves his dirtiest deeds for a Democratic administration to struggle with and to maximize the political strife in our country, which is one of Putin's primary strategic goals.
You participate in Russian propaganda at our peril.
The Zelensky bribery affair was all true and did lead to Trump’s impeachment. But it had nothing to do with Putin. Putin and Zelensky are not on speaking terms.
You do seem to have read both reports because all you have to say about them are vague accusations with not a shred of evidence. Characterizing characterizations isn’t real persuasive. Could you please give us an example of what you thought was compelling, I’ve read often that it’s all based on Intell reports and the bought Steele report which was pretty not used as fodder for corporate media headlines and non journalism. Both reports are devoid if proof of Russian collusion, even the NYT has recently admitted that. There was another report. The NSA FBI and CIA put out a joint report, it’s also very vague, and includes wording close to this: Nothing contained here is proven to be factual”. It too was meant to be used loosely as evidence by the media, it seems. We’ve become accustomed to accept opinion as fact it seems.
As to participating in Russian propaganda, I suggest you go read some of Consortiumnews, it’s got a varied number of authors, read their credentials. Many are former CIA and NSA analysts. The founder Robert Parry was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for unearthing much of the Watergate scandal. CN won the prestigious I.F. Stone award. It worth looking at. You can search it for past articles. It’s not Russian propaganda just because it attacks some democrats. It’s a left leaning journal.
As to your scarcity in f evidence of Trump helping Putin and your inability to respond to my point that Trump not Obama armed Ukraine. You point to Trumps unwillingness to halt Putin from “ modernizing and building up” his weapons. Have you ever seen a U.S. president able to do that? Congress adds to the budget for jobs. What makes you think Putin gives a damn what Trump wants?? Talk about going out on a tangent! That’s a real stretcher. It’s late ghabke, really. Putin s surrounded by US missiles, US subs off his coast, and you really think Trump the idiot is going to influence Russian military policy?
Where’s your evidence Putin’s goal is maximizing political strife here? US Intell no doubt. OK, believe what you want, just remember Intell ( like Mueller as head if FBI) led us u
Into war n Uraq, Afghanistan, Kynua, Syria, all of which we destroyed. Led us into Vietnam (CIA was in every province there). Tell Julian Assange and Ed Snowden and other leakers how much you believe our intelligence. With a straight face, if you can
Jesus, dude, you're all over the place. Tighten it up. And I'm not your research monkey. If you are that exercised about the Mueller report, then why are you relying on what others have said? Why not just read the damn thing yourself? It's more a study than a story -- dense and very hard to read, and you'll have to reread many sections. But it will address lot of your misconceptions and gaps in knowledge that you've advertised on this thread.
Although you've been graciously gifted a general and fairly accurate overview of the evidence uncovered in the Mueller report, I have a gut feeling you are one of those contentious trolls who wouldn't be satisfied even if some fool typed out all 448 pages in a skinning little column on Thom's Blog, because you obviously have put more faith in Russian intelligence than our own. Can't help you there, buddy. "You pays your money, and you takes your chances."
But here's some cutting and pasting to get you started down the right path:
Key findings:
The investigation produced 37 indictments; seven guilty pleas or convictions; and compelling evidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions. Mueller also uncovered and referred 14 criminal matters to other components of the Department of Justice.
Trump associates repeatedly lied to investigators about their contacts with Russians, and President Trump refused to answer questions about his efforts to impede federal proceedings and influence the testimony of witnesses.
A statement signed by over 1,000 former federal prosecutors concluded that if any other American engaged in the same efforts to impede federal proceedings the way Trump did, they would likely be indicted for multiple charges of obstruction of justice.
Russian interference in the 2016 election was “sweeping and systemic.”[1]
Major attack avenues included a social media “information warfare” campaign that “favored” candidate Trump[2] and the hacking of Clinton campaign-related databases and release of stolen materials through Russian-created entities and Wikileaks.[3]
Russia also targeted databases in many states related to administering elections gaining access to information for millions of registered voters.[4]
In 2015 and 2016, Michael Cohen pursued a hotel/residence project in Moscow on behalf of Trump while he was campaigning for President.[5] Then-candidate Trump personally signed a letter of intent.
Senior members of the Trump campaign, including Paul Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner took a June 9, 2016, meeting with Russian nationals at Trump Tower, New York, after outreach from an intermediary informed Trump, Jr., that the Russians had derogatory information on Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”[6]
Beginning in June 2016, a Trump associate “forecast to senior [Trump] Campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release information damaging to candidate Clinton.”[7] A section of the Report that remains heavily redacted suggests that Roger Stone was this associate and that he had significant contacts with the campaign about Wikileaks.[8]
The Report described multiple occasions where Trump associates lied to investigators about Trump associate contacts with Russia. Trump associates George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen all admitted that they made false statements to federal investigators or to Congress about their contacts. In addition, Roger Stone faces trial this fall for obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements, and one count of witness tampering.
The Report contains no evidence that any Trump campaign official reported their contacts with Russia or WikiLeaks to U.S. law enforcement authorities during the campaign or presidential transition, despite public reports on Russian hacking starting in June 2016 and candidate Trump’s August 2016 intelligence briefing warning him that Russia was seeking to interfere in the election.
The Report raised questions about why Trump associates and then-candidate Trump repeatedly asserted Trump had no connections to Russia.[9]
The Mueller Report states that if the Special Counsel’s Office felt they could clear the president of wrongdoing, they would have said so. Instead, the Report explicitly states that it “does not exonerate” the President[10] and explains that the Office of Special Counsel “accepted” the Department of Justice policy that a sitting President cannot be indicted.[11]
The Mueller report details multiple episodes in which there is evidence that the President obstructed justice. The pattern of conduct and the manner in which the President sought to impede investigations—including through one-on-one meetings with senior officials—is damning to the President.
Five episodes of obstructive conduct stand out as being particularly serious:
In June 2017 President Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to order the firing of the Special Counsel after press reports that Mueller was investigating the President for obstruction of justice;[12] months later Trump asked McGahn to falsely refute press accounts reporting this directive and create a false paper record on this issue – all of which McGahn refused to do.[13]
After National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was fired in February 2017 for lying to FBI investigators about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, Trump cleared his office for a one-on-one meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and asked Comey to “let [Flynn] go;” he also asked then-Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland to draft an internal memo saying Trump did not direct Flynn to call Kislyak, which McFarland did not do because she did not know whether that was true.[14]
In July 2017, the President directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to instruct the Attorney General to limit Mueller’s investigation, a step the Report asserted “was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the President’s and his campaign’s conduct.”[15]
In 2017 and 2018, the President asked the Attorney General to “un-recuse” himself from the Mueller inquiry, actions from which a “reasonable inference” could be made that “the President believed that an unrecused Attorney General would play a protective role and could shield the President from the ongoing Russia Investigation.”[16]
The Report raises questions about whether the President, by and through his private attorneys, floated the possibility of pardons for the purpose of influencing the cooperation of Flynn, Manafort, and an unnamed person with law enforcement.[17]
Congress needs to continue investigating and assessing elements of the Mueller Report
The redactions of the Mueller Report appear to conceal the extent to which the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of the release of hacked emails by WikiLeaks. For instance, redactions conceal content of discussions that the Report states occurred between Trump, Cohen, and Manafort in July 2016 shortly after Wikileaks released hacked emails;[18] the Report further notes, “Trump told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming,” but redacts the contextual information around that statement.[19]
A second issue the Report does not examine is the fact that the President was involved in conduct that was the subject of a case the Special Counsel referred to the Southern District of New York – which the Report notes “ultimately led to the conviction of Cohen in the Southern District of New York for campaign-finance offenses related to payments he said he made at the direction of the President.”[20]
The Report also redacts in entirety its discussion of 12 of the 14 matters Mueller referred to other law enforcement authorities.[21]
Further, the Report details non-cooperation with the inquiry by the President, including refusing requests by the Special Counsel for an interview; providing written responses that the Office of the Special Counsel considered “incomplete” and “imprecise” and that involved the President stating on “more than 30 occasions that he ‘does not recall’ or ‘remember’ or ‘have an independent recollection.’”[22]
[1] Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Election Vol. I, 1-5 (2019).
[2] Id. at Vol. I, 1-4, 14-35.
[3] Id. at Vol. I, 1-5, 36-50.
[4] Id. at Vol. I, 50-51.
[5] Id. at Vol. I, 67-80.
[6] Id. at Vol. I, 110-20.
[7] Id. at Vol. I, 5.
[8] Id. at Vol. I, 51-54.
[9] Id. at Vol. II, 18-23.
[10] Id. at Vol. II, 8.
[11] Id.
[12] Mueller Report at Vol. II, 77-90.
[13] Id. at Vol. II, 113-18.
[14] Id. at Vol. II, 40-44.
[15] Id. at Vol. II, 319-25.
[16] [16] Id. at Vol. II, 319-25.
[17] Id. at Vol. II, 332-45.
[18] Id. at Vol. I, 53.
[19] Id. at Vol. I, 54.
[20] Id. at Vol. II, 77, fn. 500.
[21] Id. at Vol. II, Appendix D.
[22] Id. at Vol. II, Appendix C.
https://www.acslaw.org/projects/the-presidential-investigation-education-project/other-resources/key-findings-of-the-mueller-report/
https://www.commoncause.org/resource/read-the-mueller-report/
The fact that Republicans are using the invasion as partisan fodder is reprehensible and predictable. But so is the 32 year history of US manipulations and intimidations towards the former and chaotic republics of the USSR. Yeltzin was lauded here as a great president because he let Goldman Sachs and their neoliberalism take control of privatization schemes, they inhabited the Kremlin, and helped pillage the country, part if the blowback was Putin, he was trusted as a patriot. Now we have our dubs patrolling the Black Sea and missiles n Turkey and Poland. Have you read Putin’s speech frim Wednesday? You should. He deserves the respect of being heard. He wants NATO to draw back. The US backed the fascist coup in Ukraine, invited them to join NATO. There are a lot of ethnic Fussians in Ukraine and they don’t want to be part of the American empire, no more do than the Crimeans who voted 90% to join Russia. This invasion is 100% caused by, provoked by the US. Putin days he does not want to control Ukraine and that he’s looking for named fascists who have killed Russians. He says he wants NATO to pull back. Russia lost 27 million people the last time the west invaded through Ukraine, before that Napoleon invaded through Ukraine. It’s high time we stop intimidating and lying about foreign leaders who have the courage to reject US aggression
I dunno, kinda sounds like Russian propaganda...
yep, it sure does. It even includes a rich selection of falsehoods and bad word usage. Propaganda to be sure but badly edited for truth and diction.
It's very difficult to understand how Florida's voters have elected Senator Rick Scott, and why they supported him as their governor from 2011-19. However, they did, and Florida's percentage of retired people depending on Medicare and Social Security is very high:
"About 21 percent of Florida’s population -- about 3.9 million people -- receive Social Security benefits. About 4 million Floridians use Medicare for health insurance."
There is obviously a challenge with the narratives that get to voters from both the Democratic Party and the Republican party. And name-calling is equally ineffective. Independent voters appear to dislike significant portions of both the Liberal and the Conservative rants, and those voters are hungry for adult conversations that are respectful of both sides of the political arena.
Perhaps it would be more productive to figure out how to replace Senator Scott with a person with common sense that is neither liberal nor conservative. Raising the income cap for Social Security and adopting a Medicare-for-All is certainly common sense-and may focus voters in Florida.
Propaganda is extremely powerful. It's a weapon that the right-wing is using effectively.
Thom, I love your work. I wrote my own take on this Russia+Republican match-made-in-hell Routine yesterday. I hope you will check it out.
https://medium.com/leftovers-again/why-we-should-care-about-ukraine-db5416caf76e
Obstruction of Justice has nothing to do with Putin. You still haven’t given us a shred of evidence of Russian interference.
Are you having trouble absorbing content? Perhaps peruse the original source material rather than trying to relitigate thousands of pieces of evidence and documents in small passages on someone's blog, gleaned from misinformation you've cherry-picked on the internet's web of lies. Particularly, you might find it beneficial to study Part II of the Mueller report instead of relying on what some friend might have related.
Trump's obstruction of justice had everything to do with Putin -- it was a direct consequence of his effort to stop an investigation into his collusion with Putin and his operatives, who led him down the primrose path with the phony prospect of a Trump Tower in downtown Moscow, appealing to his greed and ego, which are the only assets Trump possesses.
His only saving grace, as far as not being charged with conspiracy and dragged off his throne, was that the investigators determined that he was merely an unwitting fool suckered by Putin, rather than an active agent formally plotting in the backrooms against our government. They exposed the myth of Trump's genius. In other words, the only reason he's not sitting in US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum is that he's too goddamn stupid to be trusted by real spies.
We must all remember the several meetings between Trump and Putin for which we have no transcripts, no agendas, no translator notes, nothing. We just see the Donald fawning over Putin. We will never know what was said or agreed to. Never.
I just want to know what you found that incriminates Putin. You said you read the Steele dossier which the republicans and democrats paid for, after the Democrats in the DNC headquarters refused to let the FBI do forensics on. As I said, it’s very curious you can’t give us evidence of collusion after Mueller spent years and had the full Federal Intell at his disposal, you’re saying there’s no evidence because Trump isn’t reliable? Did not Mueller print all his findings? Did not a DC District judge order Mueller to cease claiming the 13 indicted IRA workers and IRA itself had connections to the Russian givt? Why can’t you show us your evidence? Perhaps there is none?
I don’t know why Putin waited until Biden got in do you? Perhaps in hopes of a chance at detente which has been his goal for decades. Or perhaps for some reason totally unrelated to who is president as he has stated that we have the same problem he has, a military bureaucracy accountable only to itself.
I’m sure glad those clever prosecutors exposed Trumps genius. Please give us some evidence of Russian collusion and quit stinewalling
I am a Cold-Warrior previously stationed in Frankfurt; we were ready to fight the Russians should they come through the Fulda Gap. Years later, back home, I was looking at a beautiful coat in Macy's and it shocked me that it was made in Russia. It took a long time to get to that point and to where we let many, many Russians emigrate. So, if you want to know what their country is like, listen to THEM. It's easy to find books by people who have dealt with Putin and his little reign of terror on gays, journalists, and anyone working for democracy. "The Man Without A Face" by Masha Gessen is a good read to start with.
The NY Times had a front-page column: "Russians Wake-up To Discover They Didn't Really Know Putin". They thought he was stable and kept the country on an even keel. Surprise! He's a psychopath, and that means he is the only person living in his head. No one knows what he is doing or thinking. I think he sh*t the bed this time, but we shall see what happens when the dead soldiers start coming home in boxes. Let's see what their Committee of Soldiers' Mothers do.
Republicans already backed a loser-psychopath, and now they are hell-bent on doing it again. How very conservative of them!?
I was stationed at Marienheide for 18 months as part of SASCOM. Beautiful countryside. Putin's Russia has always been and is today the main security threat facing Europe... and now the world... again. One step forward, two steps backward.
Thanks for your service.
We kept an eye on the Soviet Military Liaison Mission. I guess that's why I have stayed interested in them. Thank YOU for serving as well. Oh the stories we could tell....
yup
Categorizing someone as either liberal or conservative is labelling that person, i.e., name-calling them, but within the acceptable lexicon of polite political discourse. Yet, on the mean streets of real-life, that’s hard to do when a huge majority of a major party has convinced itself that the path to one-party rule is to lie about everything all the time, big and small, and cheat like hell despite the mortal blows to the civility required for a functioning democracy — with which they fundamentally disagree, making it abundantly clear — as long as they can falsely portray their political opponents as the illegitimate sperm of Satan, sacrificing babies and drinking their blood... or maybe sprinkling it on their pizzas in the basement. Democrats are part of a pedophile ring, too — a worldwide cabal of ‘em! No, really, swear to God.
So, how does one give malicious gibberish equal weight in a normal, give-and-take debate? Right, like we’re going to argue over childish nonsense with an all-time L-O-S-E-R, pouting and stomping his feet because the mean-old DemocRATs swiped an entire national election despite 99.999% of every scrap of evidence under every rock to the contrary. And very, very bad people — socialists! — pulled off this, yes, unbelievable caper right under the noses of an entire planet fixated on one of history’s most fascinating watershed elections? Simply amazing!
And get this: The sneaky bastards ran this scam undetected behind the backs of nearly everyone in the world’s most technologically savvy, overly monitored nation — 168.31 million motivated and registered voters, as of 2020, who can do basic reading, ’riting, and ‘rithmatic. Tricky, those wascally wabbits! Can you believe it? Nope.
But you know what, thinking about it cynically — it’s hard not to — let’s falsely assume the word salad burgers of conspiRACISTS have a speck of protein and the Democratic Party machine actually cheated in our highly localized and incredibly complex voting system (It did not.) beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations. If that’s truly the case, then who would you want really running things in a ruthless and complex world full of win-at-all-cost assholes: intelligent and capable progressives who know how to play the game and get shit done to help their fellow citizens; or, stupid and immoral liars and losers (Republicans... in case you’re still confused) whose primitive mentalities, attitudes, and policies only hurt and kill people and other living things while ruining our beautiful planet for fun and profit, or worse, for egocentric, religio-whacko, white-national tribalism? The dumber-than-dumb Retrumplicans let those dang DumbocRATs fool the hell out of ‘em again. Haha, gotcha!
Labeling and name-calling in politics are irresistible behaviors, old as dirt. Whether it’s acceptable and/or effective is in the eye of the beholder. We know juvenile trolling is not a feely-touchy concern for Trumpees who wallow in raw sewage. Neither does it seem to bother much the mythical “independents” and “swing” voters who aren’t really sure, apparently, about anything. Just how many wobbly fence-sitters are up for grabs, anyway, who are still scratching their little pinheads after six miserable years of an egomaniacal baboon constantly mugging for the cameras and his 30,000-plus, bald-faced lies constantly clogging our devices since he descended the golden elevator in his golden tower like a Greek god waving benevolently to the cheering surfs, a crowd of paid supporters secretly laughing at him — a complete farce like everything else in his life?
But, going with the flow, it seems corporate media loves to portray lefty sissies as weak and toothless intellectuals unwilling to fight it out down in the mud and the blood like Herr Drumpf’s fascist Brownshirts of the new Reich. Evidently, the problem ain’t that weepy libtards are mean; it’s that they ain’t mean enough. Mealy-mouthed weaklings are universally despised.
Since it’s always, “damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” liberal progressives — the good guys — may as well err on the side of righteousness and fight fascist bastards on all fronts (nonviolently, it’s necessary to say nowadays, like Woody Guthrie and all the other great heroes for the common folks). Politely or not.
At the end of the day before election day, all that should matter is that voters see the truth of things beyond all the shade — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Democracies survive and thrive in sunlight. Why is such a universal principle so damn hard for radical Retrumplicans to accept? The answer is in the question.
"The truth is out there, Scully" ...in the previous posts.
Time for a little honesty. You are accusing others of what you are doing on steroids: throwing out erroneous accusations without evidence. And your questionable sourcing includes a lot of other people's mistaken notions. That's how thought viruses spread from the diseased swamps in La La Land.
But it seems your most malicious attacks are reserved almost exclusively for Democrats and American intelligence services while largely excusing or downplaying Republican and Russian outright fabrications -- the very people most responsible for spreading disinformation about the Mueller investigation. Sure, a few mild softballs are hurled at the bad actors on the reich, but token nods don't quite get you to that Fux News "fair and balanced" level of hypocritical fantasy.
I don't know if trolls realize how their own words betray them. They should stay downwind from their prey.
At least you could slow down enough to work the spell-checker and "quit stinewalling." 🤣 (Never have hopped onto a stine and took it walling, but it sounds like a blast.)
It seems to me, if ever there was a time to change the rules of the Senate, how about a one-time hold on the hold?
Take a few deep breaths, sweetie. I humbly add the observation, that there is additional irony that honest, hardworking election managers successfully expanded secure access for the sake of trying to save lives in a historic pandemic. Only to be treated like evil scum.